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Falcon Pro, what is arguably still the most popular Android Twitter client of the moment, reached its Twitter token limit again last night. What does that mean for you? In order to free up unused tokens, the app’s developer has uploaded a new version of the app that resets all tokens. So once you grab the new update (when it goes live), you’ll have to login again with your Twitter credentials to claim a token and continue using the app.

As I mentioned, this isn’t the first time that this has happened. A few months back, the 100K token limit was reached shortly after launch thanks to heavy piracy of the app. With this approach to updating the Play store version and resetting all tokens, it frees up tokens from those who have pirated the app and also who are no longer using it yet still have a token attached to their Twitter accounts. Twitter is unlikely to change their stance on token limits, so this will likely continue to be a part of the game for the foreseeable future.

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Tokens didn’t last a day after the update…Twitter is winning this battle hands down

http://brgulker.wordpress.com/ brgulker

The issue is pretty straightforward.

This app’s development began after it became clear that Twitter was going to change its policies dramatically as it relates to third-party applications, which mean that any developer who decided to create a new app was at this type of risk by default.

This developer has two choices:

1) Accept that he took the risk, and accept that the app won’t be as profitable as he thought.

2) Implement a strategy that makes him more money but has the potential to break the application for some of his paying customers.

You can blame Twitter all you want, but the facts are what they are. Twitter announced the changes to its policies a long time ago. It’s not Twitter’s fault in that sense, even if you don’t agree with them.

In order to maximize profits, this dev decided to do something that can screw his customers, period. And that’s BS.

Rohit Rajan

Why cant Falcon Pro port the UI and all the goodies within into another app and give it a new name. S0 100k + 100k happy twitter users?

dylan84

Eventually people are going to get screwed. Every time he has to reset tokens, that 100k user limit gets closer to being reached by active users. It sucks that Twitter set this ridiculous limit to screw 3rd party developers.

James

Exactly. Plus, UI aside, the inline browser is what i love it for.

paul_cus

Sad times in Twitterland. If only their own app was better.

Rodeojones000

I believe that is their point.

Nadora

Yay, got my token reclaimed. But how many more times can we do this before paid customers are being shut out cause they logged in too late after a reset? Twitter really needs to revoke this stupid limit or increase it…

David Ust

Now. I was away for a few days with spotty cell service and missed the update. Now Falcon Pro (which I’ve had since near the beginning) doesn’t let me do anything. Awesome.

EvanTheGamer

100% agreed! I came over from TweetCaster, but after I started messing around with Falcon Pro, I started to realize how much better Falcon Pro is compared to other twitter clients.

I really love the fact that you can view links(images/videos/sites, etc) within the app. Pretty awesome.

xxdesmus

Gee thanks Twitter — this definitely needed to be such a pain in the ass.

sahilm

Totally agree, and Twitter is really getting worse now because they’re literally crippling the API. The new API version disallows “Interactions” over the API which shows you when a tweet of yours has gotten favorited.

This functionality is still available in the main twitter app. So now they’re not only restricting the number of users for third party clients, but also making the third party clients worse.

ITGuy11

No staged roll-out FTW!

Chris

what a waste of time. All this for Tweats about what someone had for lunch or what joe schmuck found inna new York city subway restroom…

Matt Barry

And yet you took time out of your important day to make this comment. Well done, sir.

mechapathy

This is lame. It was lame the first time, but it’s even more lame the second time. I’ve paid for the app. I was in early enough to get a token. Stop jeopardizing my chances of getting another token.

Ryuuie

You won’t be jeopardized. There aren’t THAT many people trying to get a token at once.

This also dumps people who bought the app, didn’t like it, and uninstalled without signing out. That uses up a token.

It’ll just continue until Twitter stops trying to screw with 3rd party devs.

Next time, he might just stop developing on it, then you’d really be upset.

mechapathy

The first time, yes. It freed up the tokens used by people who uninstalled and didn’t release the token. The second time, however, it’s more likely that there are 100K actual users. The third time, even more so. I’m in, I got the update, and I’m fine. But I’m just saying if he keeps doing this, it might shut out people who bought the app and wanted to continue using it.

Rodeojones000

I’m in agreement with you. The first time it was a means to weed out those using a token but not actively using the app or even Twitter at all. This second time, chances are of the 100,000 tokens a large majority are active users. What happens when the developer does this a 3rd or 4th time?

mechapathy

Yeah. This could eventually screw people.

tB

Why is everyone so hyped on an app that doesnt even do push messaging? I’ll be sticking with Tweetings, where I can both get my messages & respond in real time.

http://xn--wbg.com/ Michael Anthony

Because it looks pretty. Who cares how well it works.

acrobatsausages

Check out Robird. It’s got push, and smoother scrolling than Tweetings. Not as many features yet, but good enough for my daily use.

ToddAwesome

I’m happy to say that I have no idea what any of this means.

I-Troll-U

Ridiculous.. Think I am done with Twitter.

Brandon Landfried

The update is live. Even if it doesn’t say update on the play store just click installed link and have it remotely install to your device.

Matt Barry

Update is live. 2.0.3 Token Reset. Go get em.

Rbq

Unfortunately, this forced me to uninstall the app. I just won’t use Twitter as much, and it will hurt Twitter more than this guy, who already has my money. (says the guy who logged into Disqus using his twitter acct…)

Ian

Question to Twitter: Why expose the API at all if you’re going to be dicks about it? At the end of the day they just don’t want to be bested by a 3rd party dev. lol

Ryuuie

They know that. It’s what they want.

Trueblue711

Twitter users need to demand better. For such a loud and vocal crowd with everything else, I can’t believe how dead silent Twitter users are about Twitter’s crippling of apps.

http://twitter.com/rohanXm Rohan Mathur

To be honest, I don’t think Twitter cares. They know that whether we use Falcon Pro or their app, we will still tweet in some way. And they prefer it to be their app.

Trueblue711

They definitely don’t care. But if people make enough of a problem out of it (like FB users do with privacy settings) then they will have to care and do something about it.

michael arazan

I think dev’s need to work out some type of contract with twitter, for every app they sell they may have to kick back a percentage to twitter in order for twitter to give them unlimited tokens, that, or maybe twitter should buy out these devs and update their main app

Ryan

Droid Life has become annoyingly filled with ads. All I see is ads no content.

And yes Twitter sucks for it’s limitations on it’s API even though I don’t use this app.

Ryuuie

AdBlock Plus on both Chrome AND Firefox say hi.

T4rd

Indeed. Unfortunately for us wasting our employers time and money, we can’t install Chrome or extensions on our work machine. =p

BangIShotYou

Portable version of Chrome on a USB drive. ; )

It’s what I use at work. Then again, I am the IT department. Run into issues preventing me from enjoying what free time I have? Boom! Admin credentials defeat that! : P

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

You can send DROID Life a check every month other wise. I don’t understand folks that complain about Ads. It’s free content.

Ryuuie

It’s less of a problem if it’s just ONE site.

It’s more of a problem if it’s literally every. single. website. When those ads consist of popups, popunders, screen dimmers, and other crap like that, that’s when you need to start to rethink this ad-based thing.

We get enough commercials on cable and basic TV, we don’t need ads popping in our face when we’re trying to read a story about an app on a mobile phone.

Let’s not even start about the tracking that every single ad does now…

Ryan

No thanks; it’s a blog not a newspaper. I can find this content elsewhere. ADs are fine if the design incorporates them in way that doesn’t hinder the user. Thankfully feedly cuts these ads out, and just presents me with content. Haven’t been to this actual website in awhile and I certainly won’t miss it. I can deal with the side bar ADs and the header ADs, but ADs within the screenshots of the post content. Are you kidding me? Slightly desperate….

http://brgulker.wordpress.com/ brgulker

Then go elsewhere and stop complaining.

Ryan

No.

http://brgulker.wordpress.com/ brgulker

W/R/T AdBlock…

I use AdBlock. However, I use it for privacy and security. For the sites I trust and frequently visit – and especially those that depend on ad revenue – I disable it. DL is one of the whitelist sites.

To those who don’t disable AdBlock on those types of sites, I’d encourage you to consider doing so. It doesn’t hurt you, and it helps the people who produce the content you enjoy.

Full disclosure: I have never made a cent off any advertising.

AnotherAndroidKid

is token per acct or device or g account purchased from?

Nick

1 token per twitter account I believe.

slider112

Just updated and did not have to re-log in or re-authenticate anything… as seamless as every other update. Strange.

http://www.droid-life.com Kellex B

The update isn’t live yet.

slider112

Ah, that would explain it. Got it now…

http://www.keithbluhm.com/ Keith

This is becoming a huge a joke.

Derek Duncan

For me, the joke is Falcon Pro. So the limit is reached, and now you do this for a second time? Limit is reached, limit is reached. Sneaking your way around it is ridiculous.

http://www.keithbluhm.com/ Keith

You and I are on the same page.

Ryuuie

It’s not their fault. Blame Twitter’s API.

Twitter is doing this on purpose to FORCE people to use Twitter.com,m.twitter.com, and the Twitter app.

They don’t give a rat’s ass about 3rd party developers and this WILL happen to every single 3rd party Twitter app in existence sooner or later.

The only reason this is happening so frequently to Falcon Pro is because it’s popular. The others simply aren’t that popular but they all have a 100k limit on who can use their app.

Ian

How are they sneaking around it? If anything they are doing all they can to play within the limits. I’d be willing to bet the Falcon Pro dev is willing to take any viable suggestions you have to solving this issue.

flyinggerbil

yes, silly falcoln pro. you’re a joke for being successful and dealing with twitter’s arbitrary token cap in the best way possible.

Derek Duncan

revoking the keys and forcing everyone to re-authenticate in a lottery is the best way possible?

flyinggerbil

umm, yes. their hand is being forced by twatter. it’s either re-up to free tokens or become irrelevant.

Derek Duncan

so am i entitled to a refund then? I don’t use the app anymore, if he’s going to revoke my key, then how is it right i should be charged?

flyinggerbil

talk to the vendor. seems pretty straightforward to me. or, keep complaining on a message board since i’m sure that will effectuate real change.

MyStroPro

Your purchase is still valid; its the log in keys that aren’t thanks to limitations set by Twitter.

MyStroPro

Don’t forget this includes users who don’t actually use the app too. If someone installed, logged in, and rarely uses twitter, this action clears their code for another user to use, since you know, they aren’t using the app.

Spot on if they have 100K users though.

AnotherAndroidKid

But it also includes users who are on vacation for a week on a beach with no internet. Come home and find it is shut down would not be pleasant.

This method is BS and he really shouldn’t use it.

Ryuuie

He literally has no other choice. Twitter doesn’t care about 3rd party developers anymore.

He asked Twitter the very first time this happened and he was declined.

Ryuuie

Well, I guess he could shut down and never return to the app..

But, you know, we’d have people complain about THAT too. Signing in isn’t hurting you. Just do it and get over it.

Or, just submit to what Twitter wants you to do and use the real Twitter app.

John E.

Could the developers create a virtually identical app, perhaps with a subtle color change, and release that to open up 100K more tokens?

MyStroPro

I highly doubt in a week that the app will be updated by 100K users so that the marginal few on vacation in areas with no possible internet access wouldn’t be able to log in upon returning.

As noted int he article though, this is really all thanks to the pirates who never pay for it in the first place taking up slots of paying users.

David Ust

Happened to me – traveling through Tennessee/Virginia/West Virginia with barely any cell service until I got home today. Missed the update and all tokens are now used.

AnotherAndroidKid

I’m sorry to hear that. Never fun to see proof of my point on this one.

Let us know what they do for you in this situation.

David Ust

He posted a link on his twitter to the older 2.02 version of the app which still gives the error but when you ignore it and sign in anyway it still works. Definitely not a fan of this method anymore though.

Derek Duncan

yea but they paid for the app. How can you revoke access for someone who paid? Your paying customer? I might as well ask for a refund.

Jeff Tycz

You are not revoking access to anyone, all you have to go is log back in. do you really think that 100,000 of their uses really use the app every day and no one stopped using it? As explained it mostly due to piracy

MyStroPro

This doesn’t void your purchase at all, it is just like any other app update. It just resets log in details so that end users who actually use the app, as well as new users who buy the app, can actually use it as intended, instead of the pirating community.

http://brgulker.wordpress.com/ brgulker

I agree. If I were out of service for a month and came back only to discover all the tokens had been used up and I missed out, I would not be happy.

Fiorta

I use Plume so this doesn’t affect me but I have a question… Every time this gets rest, say someone who has paid for it doesn’t realize it right away and goes to update but others swoop in, pay for the app and take the token… Is that original payee now SOL?

http://www.droid-life.com Kellex B

I would assume so, yes. Which is why this method can’t be used much longer.

RaptorOO7

I stopped using twitter on my smartphone due to their dick moves and limitations. I refuse to pay for new twitter clients to only get shut out when a reset happens or watch twitter buy up an app only to kill it off.

If twitter wants to make money they need to figure out an ad model, perhaps they should sell token counts for paid twitter clients so that a small % of the app fee covers the token costs and this keeps users from getting screwed.

Tokens should also be user id based and NOT device based so you can have it on your phone and tablet.

Fiorta

Well that sucks for those users then…

http://www.keithbluhm.com/ Keith

That’s definitely a possibility. They may be able to contact the developer for a refund, but if you like the app you’re SOL.

AnotherAndroidKid

And i needed this stress today…

Mike

If your twitter app choice causes you stress you might have bigger issues

AnotherAndroidKid

it is that the other’s i’ve used and more to the point that i’ve paid for this one that causes the stress.

I understand they need a way to clear out the abandons, but there has to be a better way than just knocking everyone off and making it a lottery to get back in.

Ian

Yep and it likely involves a swift kick to the nuts of Twitter.

RaptorOO7

Perhaps Falcon pro should go paid only, and cut a deal with twitter to pay for access to more tokens. Something has to give.

moe6

There’s a free Falcon Pro?

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